KOTA KINABALU: Village heads in Sabah will get a new monthly allowance of RM650 beginning next month.
Announcing this Friday, Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Hj Hajiji Hj Noor said this was agreed to by the State Cabinet at its recent meeting chaired by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Hj Aman.
Speaking to reporters at the ministry’s annual dinner here, Hajiji explained that no doubt the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, had announced that village chiefs in the country would get a new monthly allowance of RM800, but that was applicable only in the Peninsular.
“This is because in the Peninsular, the village head is the chairman of the Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK). In other words, he is doing two jobs and hence it is only fair that he gets the entire RM800.
“But in Sabah, the scenario is different whereby the village head and the JKKK chairman are different persons. Hence, before the allowance raise, the village head gets only RM450, with RM400 coming from the Federal Government and RM50 from the State Government.
“With the new allowance, the Sabah village heads will get RM650, with RM600 coming from the Federal Government and RM50 from the State Government. This is already an increase of RM200 per month for the Sabah village heads,” he pointed out.
Hajiji added that in view of the different system in Sabah, the Chief Minister took the matter up with the Federal Government and it was decided that both the village heads and the JKKK chairmen in Sabah would get a raise of RM200 in monthly allowance. Thus, the JKKK chairman’s new monthly allowance will be RM400, with RM200 coming from the State Government and RM200 from the Federal Government.
He hoped that the new allowances would motivate both the village heads and JKKK chairmen in Sabah to work harder in discharging their duties.
“Both the village head and the JKKK chairman are important figures in the village and they both play a vital role as ‘eyes and ears’ of the government. They should work hard to bring not just development, peace, security, unity and harmony in their village but also to help make the Chief Minister’s Halatuju a reality and Sabah a better place for all to live in,” he said.